Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The 14 Biggest Moments Of The Final Debate

]Trump will not commit to accepting a loss while Clinton warns he is a Russian puppet.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump did not hide their personal animus in their final debate.

Like their last meeting, they skipped the handshake and immediately launched into a heated battle on everything from abortion rights and the Second Amendment to Russian espionage aimed at helping the Republican win the White House.

And also like the second debate, this forum unfolded in the shadow of controversies. Numerous women have come forward to accuse Trump of the kind of sexual assault he was caught bragging about in a video. Trump has denied the accusations and alleged they are part of a media conspiracy to rig the election. Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign has been forced to grapple with the release of thousands of stolen campaign emails that reveal discrepancies in her public and private positions. Both came up in the course of the debate.

Chris Wallace of Fox News moderated.

Here are the most interesting moments of the third presidential debate.

Trump: “She was extremely upset, extremely angry”

Trump, in an attempted hit at Clinton’s temperament, said she was “extremely upset, extremely angry” in the wake of the Heller v. D.C. Supreme Court decision that upheld an individual’s right to bear arms.

“She was extremely angry about it, I mean I watched, she was very, very angry,” Trump said.

Clinton said that while she supports the Second Amendment, she would like to see the kind of regulations and limits that are circumscribed by the Heller decision.

Clinton, when asked if she was “extremely upset” by the decision, said she is upset that children have continued to perish at the hands of firearms in the home.

“What I would like to see is for people to come together and say, of course we're going to protect and defend the Second Amendment,” Clinton said. “But we're going to do it in a way that tries to save some of these 33,000 lives that we lose every year.”Trump unclear if he wants Roe overturned

Trump repeatedly refused to say if he wants to see Roe v. Wade, the decision that affirmed a constitutional right to an abortion, overturned, though he said it likely will be overturned if he is elected.

“I am pro-life and I would be appointing pro-life judges, I would think that would go back to the individual states,” Trump responded when asked if he wanted Roe overturned.

Wallace pressed again: “Do you want to see the court overturn it?”

“If we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that is really what will happen,” Trump said. “That will happen automatically in my opinion. Because I am putting pro-life justices on the court. I will say this. It will go back to the states and the states will then make a determination.”Clinton affirmed her support for Roe.

Clinton hits Trump for “scare rhetoric”

Trump criticized Clinton on abortion, saying she supports the right of women to abort a pregnancy in “the ninth month, on the final day.”

“If you go with what Hillary is saying, you can take baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby,” Trump said. “Now, you can say that that is okay and Hillary can say that that is okay, but it's not okay with me.”Clinton fired back that Trump’s rhetoric was wrong.

“That's not what happens in these cases,” Clinton said. “Using that kind of scare rhetoric is just terribly unfortunate. You should meet with the women I've met with. Women I've known over the course of my life. This is one of the worst possible choices that any woman and her family has to make. And I do not believe the government should be making it.”

Trump: Deport “bad hombres”

Trump said the United States needs to deport immigrants here illegally because there are some “bad hombres” among those here. He began his answer by saying there were four women in the audience who lost children to violence on behalf of those here illegally.

“We stop the drugs; we shore up the border,” Trump said. “One of my first acts will be to get all the drug lords, we have some bad, bad people in this country that have to go out. We're going to get them out. We're going to secure the border. And once the border is secured, at a later date, we'll make determination as to the rest. We have some bad hombres and we're going to get them out.”

Clinton: Trump “choked” on the wall

Clinton has made a routine of trying to get under Trump’s skin in the debates, and has proved adept at it. She took another shot Wednesday, hitting Trump on one of his top issues — a proposed border wall — and his trip to Mexico.

“He went to Mexico. Had a meeting with the Mexican president. He didn't even raise it. He choked,” Clinton said. “And then got into a Twitter war because the Mexican president said 'we're not paying for that wall.'"

“I had a very good meeting with the president of Mexico. Very nice man,” Trump responded.On WikiLeaks, Clinton demands Trump disavow Russian influence

Pressed on a speech — revealed in an email hacked by Wikileaks — in which Clinton said she supported “open borders,” Clinton pounced on the opportunity to pivot to Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election.

“You are very clearly quoting from WikiLeaks,” Clinton said. “What is really important about WikiLeaks is that the Russian government has engaged in espionage against Americans. They have hacked American websites, American accounts of private people, of institutions. Then they have given that information to WikiLeaks for the purpose of putting it on the internet. This has come from the highest levels of the Russian government.”

Clinton called on Trump to reject “Russian espionage.”

Trump shot back: “That was a great pivot off the fact that she wants open borders.”Clinton: Putin wants a “puppet”

Clinton has repeatedly hit Trump as too cozy with Putin, and Trump has done little to push back on the label. He said again Wednesday that it is unclear if Russia is involved in hacking to influence the election, though top intelligence officials and President Barack Obama have said that Russia is involved in such attempts.

“Now we can talk about Putin. I don't know Putin. He said nice things about me.” Trump said he would like to have a good relationship with Putin, and said Putin has “no respect” for Clinton.

“Well, that's because he would rather have a puppet as president of the United States,” Clinton shot at Trump.

“You’re the puppet,” Trump spat back.

They weren't done, as Clinton pressed forward with evidence that Russia has attempted to influence the election.

“We have 17, 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyber attacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin,” Clinton said. “And they are designed to influence our election. I find that deeply disturbing.”

But Trump continued to deny the link.

“She has no idea whether it is Russia, China or anybody else,” Trump said.

“I am not quoting myself,” Clinton retorted.

“You have no idea,” he replied.

Clinton again mentioned the 17 intelligence agencies.

“She doesn't like Putin because Putin has outsmarted her at every step of the way,” he replied.

Trump went on to add: “I never met Putin. This is not my best friend.”

Trump: “I should win easily”

Wallace pressed Trump on his economic plan in harsh terms.

“Even conservative economists have said that the numbers don’t add up,” Wallace said, pointing out many have called it “unrealistic.”

Trump responded by citing India's and China’s economic growth rates, and said job growth in the U.S. is “anemic.”

“A terrible jobs report,” Trump said, citing the September jobs report. “I said ‘Is that the last jobs report before the election?’ Because if it is, I should win easily. The report was so bad.”

The recent report showed that the U.S. economy added 156,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.9 percent to 5 percent as more people were drawn back into the labor force.

Trump says Clinton campaign is behind sexual assault accusations

“Nine women have come forward and said that you either groped them or kissed them without your consent,” Wallace said. “Why would they all in this last couple of weeks…make up these stories?”

“First of all, those stories have been largely debunked,” Trump said falsely. He then said that Clinton’s campaign is responsible for the accusers, a statement for which there is no evidence.

“I didn’t even apologize to my wife, who is sitting right here, because I didn’t do anything,” Trump said. He said he did not know the women who accused him, and that they either want “fame” or were recruited by the Clinton campaign. Trump also accused Clinton and Obama of causing violence at his rallies.

Clinton hit back hard, saying Trump had said the women who accused him of assault were not attractive enough for him to grope them. Trump then falsely stated he had never made such statements.

“That’s who Donald is,” Clinton said, after saying all women know what it feels like to be belittled in such a manner.

“Nobody has more respect for women than I do,” Trump said.

The audience laughed.

“Please everybody,” Wallace chided the audience.

Trump hits Clinton on emails; she ignores

Trump skipped away from the accusations of sexual assault and hit Clinton for her use of a private email server as secretary of state. After calling the accusations “fiction,” Trump switched gears.

“I'll tell you what isn't fictionalized is her e-mails where she destroyed 30,000 e-mails criminally after getting a subpoena from the United States Congress,” Trump said, adding that a general who had done less is likely going to prison.

Clinton did not respond to the accusations, instead saying that when Trump is pushed on something, “he immediately goes to denying responsibility.”Clinton hits Trump Foundation: “I mean, who does that?”

After defending the Clinton Foundation’s charitable work, Clinton turned her fire to the Trump Foundation, a controversial non-profit. Clinton pointed out that, as reported by the Washington Post, Trump used money from the Foundation to buy a portrait of himself.

“I mean, who does that?” Clinton said incredulously.

Trump went on to call the Clinton Foundation “a criminal enterprise” and defended his Foundation and said “100 percent” of the money goes to charities. Clinton pointed out that the issue could be resolved if Trump were to release his tax returns.

Trump may not concede the election

Trump may not concede the election if he loses, he said Wednesday, citing unsubstantiated cases of voter fraud and accusing the media of being biased in its coverage of the campaign. Wallace pointed out that Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence and daughter, Ivanka Trump, have said that Trump will accept the results of the election. Trump said that is not necessarily the case.

“I'll look at it at the time. What I've seen is so bad. The media is so dishonest and so corrupt and the pile on is so amazing,” Trump said. Wallace pointed out that peaceful concessions are a bedrock of American democracy.

“I’ll keep you in suspense,” Trump responded.

“That’s horrifying,” Clinton said. She accused Trump of calling things “rigged” whenever they are not going well for him, and mentioned he once called the Emmy Awards “rigged” when he did not receive one.

“Should have gotten it,” Trump said.

“It’s funny, but it’s also really troubling,” Clinton said.

Clinton unloads on Trump as “conspiracy” peddler and “dangerous”

After Trump said that the American-supported Iraqi military operation to take back the city of Mosul is politically-motivated to help Clinton, she slammed Trump as a peddler for conspiracy theories.

“That’s how Donald thinks,” Clinton said, after stating the military operation is divorced from American politics. “He has all these conspiracy [theories].”

Trump replied, hitting Clinton for her judgment and instincts, saying Bernie Sanders thinks Clinton has bad judgment and that John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, said in a leaked email that she has bad “instincts.”

Clinton responded by saying Trump should note who Sanders is supporting and campaigning for: Clinton.

“He said you are the most dangerous person to run for president in the modern history of America,” Clinton said. “I think he's right.”

Trump: Clinton is “such a nasty woman”

Clinton was discussing Social Security reform, saying she will seek to raise the payroll tax on high earners like herself and Trump. She said she and Trump will pay more, then added that is “assuming he can't figure out how to get out of it” — a nod to Trump’s past avoidance of federal taxes.

Trump leaned into his mic, speaking over her to declare that the first female major party nominee is “such a nasty woman.”

It served as an exclamation point on the final debate in a historically divisive election.